1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copier or similar equipment with a document feeder, and more particularly relates to an industrial type copier for broad-width originals.
2. Discussion of the Background
Copiers are divided into two types. One type is a copier in which a stationary document is scanned by a moving scanner. The other type is a copier in which a moving document is scanned by a stationary scanner. The industrial type copier for broad-width originals mostly employs the latter type of mechanism.
When a plurality of copies are desired to be produced in the industrial copier, the original has to be transferred across the scanning position a same number of times as a desired number of copies. One conventional apparatus can provide the plurality of copies by manually reloading the original for each copy by an operator. However, this was troublesome and time consuming. Therefore, a recycle type copier was proposed for making a plurality of copies.
The recycling type copier has a closed loop path for feeding the document. The copier automatically and continuously feeds a document to the scanning point on the closed loop path. The recycling type copier can very effectively produce a plurality of copies of a document, but a problem with this type of copier is that the length of the document must be shorter than the length of the closed loop path. Therefore, a large size document feeder with a long loop path is necessary for copying a large size document. However, a compact size of copier is preferable because of limited office space.
Therefore, a document feeder was developed to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages which employs a reciprocating path in addition to the recycling closed path. The reciprocating path comprises an open path in which the scanner is mounted, and the document to be scanned is transferred past the scanning position a plurality of times by a reciprocating movement. A manual selection lever is mounted in the conventional copier in order to select one of the recycling path and the reciprocating path. When the document is small, the recycling path should be selected. When the document is long, the reciprocating path should be selected. When an operator uses the copier, the operator has to pay careful attention to the size of the document to be copied and the position of the manual selection lever, and if necessary, change the manual lever before copying. It is easy to neglect proper setting of the manual selection level and an improper selection can cause problems. It is also necessary to educate operators how to set the lever. When the operator improperly sets the lever or the operator happens to forget to set the lever, a wrong path is selected. For example, if the recycling path is selected for a document which is longer than the length of the recycling closed path, the document may be damaged. When there is a short document and the reciprocating path is selected, time is wasted due to the reciprocating movement.